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A Block of Ediacaran Volcanic Rocks in the South Mongolia–Khingan Orogenic Belt

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Abstract

This publication presents new data on the chemical composition of rocks from the volcanogenic part of the Shirokopadinskaya Formation in the Bereya River basin of the Amur fragment of the northeastern flank of the South Mongolia–Khingan orogenic belt, (SMKhOB) as well as the results of geochronological (U–Th–Pb, LA–ICP– MS) and isotope (Lu–Hf) studies on zircons from crystal tuff. Metabasaltic andesites, their tuffs, and tuffites dominate among the volcanic and volcano-sedimentary rocks of the Shirokopadinskaya Formation. The geochemical features of the rocks and Hf-isotope composition of zircons from volcanic rocks indicate their suprasubduction origin. The concordant age of the youngest zircon population from crystal tuff is 589 ± 5 Ma (MSWD = 0.60, concordance probability = 0.90%), which corresponds to the Ediacaran. These zircons are characterized by well-preserved crystal faceting without traces of roundness. In our opinion, the age of the tuffs reflects the age of volcanism and the studied volcanic rocks. The data are rather unexpected, because the oldest rocks of the oceanic crust of the South Mongolia–Khingan orogenic belt are Ordovician in age. This means that the studied volcanic rocks are more than 100 million years older and cannot be a part of the South Mongolia–Khingan belt. The Ediacaran volcanic rocks are restricted to the boundary between the South Mongolia–Khingan orogenic belt and the Mamyn (Xing’an) terrane. They are a fragment of the Mamyn (Xing’an) terrane, which was tectonically placed into the present-day structure of the South Mongolia-Khingan orogenic belt. This conclusion is supported by the presence of rocks of similar age and geochemical composition in the Mamyn (Xing’an) terrane.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to E.N. Voropaeva, O.G. Medvedeva, V.I. Rozhdestvina, E.S. Sapozhnik, and E.V. Ushakova (analytical laboratory of the Institute of Geology and Nature Management of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences), O.V. Zarubin, N.V. Bryansky, T.N. Galkin (Vinogradov Institute of Geochemistry, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences), and staff of the Arizona LaserChron Center, USA, for the performance of analytical studies.

We are grateful to the Academician V.V. Yarmolyuk and anonymous reviewers for valuable comments that significantly improved the manuscript.

Funding

The studies were supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 21-77-10001, https://rscf.ru/project/21-77-10001/).

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  1. Institute of Geology and Nature Management, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 675000, Blagoveshchensk, Amur oblast, Russia

    Y. V. Smirnov

  2. Geological Institute, Kola Science Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, 184200, Apatity, Murmansk oblast, Russia

    N. M. Kudryashov

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  1. Y. V. Smirnov
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Recommended for publishing by A.A. Sorokin

Translated by M. Bogina

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Smirnov, Y.V., Kudryashov, N.M. A Block of Ediacaran Volcanic Rocks in the South Mongolia–Khingan Orogenic Belt. Russ. J. of Pac. Geol. 16, 477–491 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1819714022050098

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